Night Stalker Primer
Balanar the Night Stalker has changed over the years. Once played as a mid that held a reign of terror during the first night, he fell into obscurity when players didn’t quite know how to run him with the 6.79 night time changes. Since then, pro teams discovered that he had a niche role as a support. He’s been rising in popularity in 6.85, having already been picked several times in the Frankfurt Major qualifiers and (as of this writing) the 9th most picked hero in professional Dota.
I’ve started dabbling with Night Stalker in my own games and have found him to be quite enjoyable (and refreshing) to play, so I wanted to write a bit based on the games from the Frankfurt Major qualifiers as well as from my own pub games. This article will focus on playing Night Stalker as a 4 position support that plays similarly to a utility core.
Let’s get started!
The Hero
Night Stalker is a great hero for controlling the pace of the game. If you’ve been looking for a hero who can support, create pressure, be aggressive and active, and transition to a semi-core then Night Stalker is for you! We’ll first look at a general overview of how Night Stalker functions as a hero.
Game Plan
The basic game plan with Night Stalker is as follows:
- Get through the first 4 minutes of laning, getting as much as you can.
- Wreak havoc during the first night time, ganking vulnerable heroes and getting kills up for your team. Your goal is to establish control of the game.
- Focus more on farming while continuing to apply pressure. Your desired big item is an Aghanim’s scepter.
- With your completed Aghanim’s, suffocate your opponent’s space until your team can win the game.
We’ll go more in depth with these points later.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Night Stalker has quite a few things going for him, especially with all of the changes he’s been getting over the past few patches. Some of his major strengths as a hero include:
- Minimal level or items required to be effective early on. You need as little as level 2 and brown boots by the first night, although ideally you have level 3 and part of your urn complete at that point.
- Extremely potent spells with short cooldowns. At night, Balanar has not only ~414 move speed (at level 2!) but also a 4 second, 50% slow on an 8 second cooldown (and it mini-stuns!).
- Tremendous night vision, in particular with an Aghanim’s scepter. Having unrestricted vision makes it easy to find gank targets as well as to spot incoming ganks (sometimes before they even spot you). Adding a gem on top of this makes it extremely hard for your opponent to maintain map vision or initiate on your team.
- Durability. Night Stalker has 5.5 armor at level 1, making him quite resistant to physical damage. Additionally, his base health regen was buffed to 2 HP/sec in 6.85.
These traits make Night Stalker potent at face-rushing your opponents early on, especially if they are under-farmed or out of position.
Of course, Night Stalker has some weaknesses as well:
- Low daytime laning impact. Night Stalker doesn’t offer as much as other supports during the first 4 minutes of the game. He’s okay at zoning some heroes (because he can trade harass more effectively and throw out Void). He needs another hero who can be threatening if opposing heroes decide they do want to engage or trade blows.
- Low late game team fight impact. Even in a core role, Night Stalker falls off in the late game. Enemy carries will have BKBs while enemy supports will have mobility items, allowing them to deal with Void and Crippling Fear. His physical damage doesn’t compare to hard carries, especially when played as a utility/support. His contribution to late game team fights primarily consists of the vision he provides.
- Mana constraints. Especially in the early game, Night Stalker is fairly constrained by mana problems. This can be alleviated by getting an urn or a magic stick/wand, but it’s still a problem until a teammate gets arcanes or he’s able to pick up a point booster.
- Poor farming ability. Night Stalker needs some items to stay relevant later on in the game, even as a support. Unfortunately, his best farming tools are his Void and the attack speed bonus he gets at night time.
Team Composition
As Night Stalker, we want to be able to focus on creating pressure and having an early game impact. This is significantly affected by your team’s picks. There are two main rules of thumb: you need a core (or cores) who can also create pressure early and you need a second support.
It’s really important to have a core that’s strong early (typically your mid or offlaner) because Night Stalker isn’t capable of ganking solo. You’ll be able to initiate, put in some right clicks, and tank some damage, but you will need help in order to finish off a kill. Cores that have nukes work decently as well. Farming cores don’t work too well for ganking, unless the player knows how to take over the enemy jungle.
The second support is also important; Night Stalker offers very little to his team in terms of traditional support. You’ll also need economic help; although I believe Night Stalker can and should buy some of the wards, there will likely be times where you want to focus on saving up for your next item.
In terms of overall team composition, it’s also nice to have teamfight strength. Night Stalker is strong for ganking or in chaotic fights, but has trouble fighting into an organized 5-man group.
Skill Build
Usually you will want to max Void first on Night Stalker, followed by Hunter in the Night. The main points are to max Void by level 7 and max Hunter in the Night by level 10. So, a typical skill build would look something like this:
Although this would probably be the skill build that I prefer, there are some good reasons why you might deviate from the specific build above.
First, silences might be extremely useful for your team. This is especially true against mobile heroes such as Queen of Pain or Anti-Mage. In this case, you’d probably opt to take an earlier point in Crippling Fear. You might also take additional points sooner, but I think this is largely unnecessary. (The day time silence doesn’t scale and the night time silence is already great at level 1.)
Second, you might tweak your skill build based on whether or not it is day or night when you level up.
If it’s night, you could delay getting Darkness since using Darkness doesn’t give Night Stalker any direct benefits if it’s already night time. Instead, you might get Crippling Fear or Hunter in the Night for more immediate value.
If it’s day, you could save the skill point that you otherwise would have put into Hunter in the Night. This allows you to skill Crippling Fear in a pinch to secure a kill. Otherwise, you can just skill Hunter in the Night when it becomes night time.
Skill Usage Tips
Basic usage of Night Stalker’s skills are fairly straightforward:
- Void is a solid nuke, slow, and mini-stun. It’s a decent way to initiate a gank in the early or mid game, especially at night.
- Crippling Fear applies a silence and a miss chance, though it’s primarily used as a silence. Use it as you would typically use a silence.
- Darkness changes day time to night time and reduces your opponent’s vision. Use it whenever you want to fight during the day time. It should also be used to further restrict your opponent’s vision at night.
Of course, there are some finer points as well:
- If you’re trying to kill someone with a mobility spell, silence them first. Otherwise, you’ll usually want to Void them first.
- With that said, if your target is guaranteed to be dead, save your Void to cancel their potential TP.
- Darkness no longer extends the day/night cycle as it used to. Use it when you join fights, and feel free to use it liberally at night time to reduce vision (especially at higher levels).
Item Build
Night Stalker can go in a few different directions with enough farm. As mentioned previously, we’re focusing on a utility, support Night Stalker. So, the main item we’ll be looking to buy is an Aghanim’s scepter.
Starting Items
If your other support can buy all of the typical support items, you should start with boots of speed, tangos, and a clarity. If you do need to buy some support items, I would recommend also getting tangos, a clarity, and possibly a gauntlet of strength.
You’ll probably have some extra gold; I have a personal preference of floating around 200 gold when possible. This allows me to buy sentries if I decide I need them; otherwise, I can get faster brown boots. If you do want to spend your gold, I’d recommend buying components that build into a magic wand or an urn.
Early Items
There is one item that you must finish before the first night: boots of speed. Your ability to gank is severely limited if you don’t have boots, even if you do have Hunter in the Night.
Beyond boots, grab a magic stick and then an urn of shadows. It’s fine if the urn isn’t completed before the first night (although ideally it is completed during that night). At least get the sage’s mask if you have the money. The sage’s mask and magic stick should help ensure that you have enough mana to continually gank.
Core Items
The first major decision you need to make is whether or not you’ll build a hand of midas. Midas is a strong item for a support Night Stalker as it ensures that you’ll get levels and that you’ll make steady progress towards completing an Aghanim’s scepter. If you do go for one, get it before the remaining core items. The midas timing is not a major issue, but of course the sooner the better.
There are two primary boots you should consider for Night Stalker: phase and treads. I prefer phase as it gives more mobility and lets you hit harder. Treads are decent for health but the attack speed isn’t very important for this style of Night Stalker.
There was at least one set of tranquil boots built in the Frankfurt Major qualifier, but I don’t like that choice. I think that the regen isn’t necessary due to urn, that the move speed is comparable to phase, and that the armor isn’t necessary (or can be obtained with a basi). I also don’t like arcanes; Night Stalker doesn’t need mana that much and arcanes don’t help accentuate his strengths, unlike phase or treads.
Your primary big ticket item is an Aghanim’s scepter. Aghanim’s gives you a lot of control at night, as you are effective at finding gank targets and scouting out incoming ganks. Combined with your fast move speed, you can rapidly sweep through the map.
Finally, get a gem to accompany the scepter. The gem solidifies your control, allowing you to find invisible enemies as well as your opponent’s wards.
Luxury Items
Beyond Aghs, you can itemize according to what your team needs. You might especially consider:
- BKB to allow you to participate in the middle of a team fight. This is my preference.
- Vladimir’s offering to buff your team.
- Blink dagger or force staff for increased mobility.
- Scythe of vyse, abyssal blade, or heaven’s halberd for increased control.
Playstyle
Here we’ll cover the finer details of playing Night Stalker, broken down according to the game plan outlined before.
The First Day
Night Stalker plays a bit like Ogre Magi during laning, except you don’t have the luxury of casting Ignite for free harass. Feel free to cast Void for kill attempts or to get in a bit more right-click harass, but otherwise don’t waste your mana. You want to harass weak lanes or heroes that are slightly out of position. You should be able to trade harass more comfortably than your opponents thanks to your high HP, armor, and HP regen.
I imagine that you’ll usually find more harassment opportunities if you start in the offlane. This also allows you to rotate through their jungle to bother any opposing junglers. Going through the jungle also allows you to gank the enemy mid, if they’re susceptible.
Your primary goal during the first four minutes should be to get your brown boots (if you didn’t start with them) and to get experience (hopefully level 3, but level 2 is okay).
Finally, remember to secure the 2 minute rune! A fortunate rune (haste or invis) will often set up a kill opportunity.
The First Night
Make sure that you have enough HP and mana to go ganking as night starts. Your four minutes are really precious, so you want to make sure you’re ready to fight as much as possible. Avoid dying unless you get a good trade. If you haven’t already, pick up a magic stick to help with sustain between ganks.
The easiest gank targets are isolated heroes. Ganking a one or two hero lane is often feasible; ganking a trilane is harder but still possible depending on the circumstances. Executing the gank is somewhat straightforward — Void them, then chase and right click them while your ally follows you in.
An important aspect to setting up successful ganks is for your opponent to not know that you’re coming. A reasonable way to avoid being spotted is to not run through the river (to avoid being spotted by wards) and to avoid showing yourself near a lane until you actually start the gank. Running through the enemy jungle is a good way to find jungling heroes and to move between lanes without being spotted.
Relatedly, it’s often worth it to buy some new wards during the night. As you’ll hopefully be going through your opponent’s jungle, this gives you a chance to drop some deep wards that will spot enemy movement or gankable heroes.
It might take some experimenting, but remember that Night Stalker is fairly durable. You are able to dive towers and run into a few enemy heroes. If you get in trouble, you can often just run away thanks to the Hunter in the Night move speed bonus. Remember to complete your urn as soon as possible for extra damage during ganks or for keeping your team ready to continue fighting.
Pre-Aghanim’s
Regardless of whether or not your Aghanim’s is finished, you’ll often want to participate in fights that break out. Night Stalker isn’t a great farmer, so fights tend to be your best way to get gold.
When you’re not fighting or otherwise busy, focus on finding some farm. It’s most convenient to farm an empty lane, but sometimes you’ll be forced to grab gold from the jungle. Unless you need your mana for an upcoming fight, use Void to speed your farming a bit, particularly in the jungle.
Your play during the day/night cycles will play out somewhat similarly to the first cycle. Night Stalker has limited usefulness during the day and is considerably stronger at night. Your strength relative to your opponents will naturally depend on the levels and items that each player has picked up, and so you’ll need to adjust how aggressive you can be in fights accordingly.
It’s good to push towers when possible, but it’s even more useful when your team is capable of controlling the map. Remember to convert ganks into towers when possible to limit your opponents’ map control.
Post-Aghanim’s
Once you have an Aghanim’s scepter, your primary role will be to control the map. At night, you should be able to run around and keep tabs on where your opponents are. Usually you’ll be able to spot them before they’re able to spot you.
If your team is looking to play defensive or farm, scout out the areas that you want to keep safe. With your vision range and movement speed, it should be extremely difficult for your opponents to catch you.
If you’re looking to fight or push, again you’ll want to scout out the areas that you want to move into. You don’t always have to be the frontmost member of your team, but you should be pretty close — your Aghanim’s vision nullifies any high ground vision advantage the opposing team might have.
If you do find someone you want to initiate on, do your best to not reveal yourself as you approach your target. Unless they have a ward or some kind of scouting unit, they won’t be able to see you approach even though you can maintain vision of them. Abuse tree lines so that you can sneak up on them.
As mentioned in the items section, picking up a gem is extremely powerful with an Aghs. It becomes next to impossible for your opponents to surprise you with an invis jump. You also become a mobile ward detector — coupled with a ranged ally or a quelling blade you can deward the entire map.
During night time fights your hero might feel powerful, but remember that this isn’t the case unless you have items beyond Aghs. Even though you have a lot of HP at this point, running straight into the enemy team isn’t viable like it was in the early game. Oftentimes enemy carries will have BKBs and you’ll die rather quickly. Instead, fight opponents on the fringes of the main team fight until you get a BKB. If you have a gem, be especially careful — dying and losing a gem to the enemy team is roughly a 2000 gold swing. On top of that, you give up a lot of the map dominance that you previously had.
Final Notes
Night Stalker is a reasonably flexible hero in terms of his place on a team. We took a look at how to run Night Stalker as a utility-oriented support.
Night Stalker is an aggressive hero and not suited well for playing from behind. As such, our overall game plan was to control our opponents:
- Establish an early lead during the first night, putting our opponents on the back foot.
- Use our early game lead to buy some space to farm while continuing to apply pressure.
- Get an Aghanim’s scepter to establish map dominance. If possible, constrict and confine our opponents to their base until we’re ready to attempt to high ground them.
Of course, this is only one way to play Night Stalker. Several pro teams also have run Night Stalker as an offlaner, although his role on the team is still similar to what we’ve looked at here. Notable examples and divergences include Evil Geniuses and Team Secret. EG plays Night Stalker in the offlane but goes for more combat-oriented items, such as an armlet. Secret sometimes runs Night Stalker mid, although they still build him with a midas and Aghanim’s.
Good luck, have fun!
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